Frequency in the dictionary: A corpus-assisted contrastive analysis of English and Italian

This book is concerned first and foremost with frequency in language analysis and in foreign language learning, and in particular with contrastive frequency from one language to another. The focus is on the learning of English and Italian, whether it be English speakers learning Italian or Italian speakers learning English. Frequency of occurrence is the driving force behind much L2 learning (as well as much L1 learning), but notwithstanding the crucial emphasis on frequency in theories of language such as lexical priming and collostructional analysis, its role remains in the wings, since it is not stressed in any consistent manner in English / Italian language-learning materials. The research concentrates primarily on the frequency rates both of lemmas and above all of word forms within specific grammatical categories, investigating – with recurrent use of corpus data – to what degree frequency trends are accounted for in English and Italian dictionaries. The latter part of the book moves beyond single lemmas and word forms into the terrain of lexical and grammatical environment, focusing on the frequency of (i) negativisation and (ii) lexical and grammatical co-occurrence, again considering how these are catered for in dictionaries. The work draws to a close with some reflections both upon the limitations of the research project and upon the shortcomings of the corpus analysis conducted. The corpora adopted throughout this book are the British Web 2007, and the Italian Web 2006, both consulted via The Sketch Engine, a corpus manager and analysis software.